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“Here, maybe a sip of water will help.” My mother snapped her fingers and a tall glass of water garnished with a lemon slice appeared in front of me. I reached for the tumbler and drank. The cool liquid soothed my throat, and I leaned back.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said gratefully. She smiled proudly, and my parents returned to their seats. My father ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up on end.
Councilwoman Raven drummed her short, square nails on the table. “You were saying?” she prompted.
I swallowed. “Yes, well, I had a question I thought I should know the answer to and couldn’t find it in any of my textbooks from the academy.”
The councilwoman frowned. “Really? Perhaps you just overlooked it. The academy is very thorough in preparing all wanna-be reapers.”
“Maybe,” I replied uncertainly.
“In any case, what is your question?”
“What would happen if…hypothetically speaking, of course…I took someone’s life before it was their time?”
There were multiple groans from around the room. My father slapped his forehead.
“Good gravy, Ainsley, you didn’t!” he said.
“Now, Giles,” said my mother, placing a hand on my father’s arm. “I’m sure whatever happened can be easily fixed. Isn’t that right, Lilith?”
Councilwoman Raven’s expression was as sour as if she’d just eaten a lemon.
“It can be, Tabitha,” she said, her beady eyes boring into mine rather than my mother’s. “But it’s not up to us to correct Ainsley’s hypothetical little mistake. That is her responsibility. Ms. Adams, you have exactly twenty-four hours to correct the natural balance, or I will personally see to it that you are stripped of your reaper license.”
I gasped. My mother clutched her chest, her eyes wide.
“You can’t be serious, Lilith,” my father began, waving his hand in the air. “That seems a bit harsh.”
“Well, then,” said the councilwoman, straightening her jacket, “I suggest that your daughter get her sweet cheeks in gear and figure out a solution to this crisis before time is up.”
She rose from the table. “Now, I’m going back to my bath and pour myself another sherry or three. This meeting is adjourned. Everyone can see themselves out.”
***
I portaled back to my bedroom and stepped through the full-length standing mirror onto the rug. The bedside table lamp that I’d left on cast a golden glow around the room and shadows of the furniture stretched over the walls, reminding me of the elongated reflections of funhouse mirrors.
I took a deep breath. I could be calm. Maybe. In fact, maybe Edward wasn’t even dead. Maybe he’d woken up and was downstairs on the couch with a beer watching the ballgame right now. A spark of hope raced through me, and I hurried into the hallway.
Unfortunately, my husband’s body was still lying where I’d left it on the floor of the kitchen. I let out a shaky exhale. All right, so at least I knew that there was a solution to this problem. The councilwoman hadn’t said it would be impossible to re-alive Edwards, after all.
I snapped my fingers. That was it! Necromancy. I remembered learning about the subject in a general studies class at the academy, but looking back, I really wish I’d paid more attention instead of drooling over Malcolm Silvers every day. Who would have thought I’d ever really need to use that necromancy stuff though? I’d already decided to become a reaper like my parents. Oh, well, I suppose hindsight is everything. But since I’d kept all my textbooks, I was sure I could find some information about it.
I hurried to the stairwell off the kitchen that led to the basement and flicked on the light. Grasping the handrail, I descended the steep staircase slowly, grumbling to myself as I tried not to hit my head on the portion of ceiling that jutted out. I don’t know why homes in the Pacific Northwest all seemed to have such treacherous basement stairs, other than prevent anyone from ever caring to visit the lower level. I guess it would be one way to ensure that any important family heirlooms would never be accidentally carted off, or perhaps a good place to bury some bodies.
I grimaced at the thought and turned to the boxes stacked up against the wall that contained everything from Christmas ornaments and extra dinnerware to camping gear, books, and photo albums. The one with my textbooks was sitting on the shelf where I’d left it before requesting a meeting with the Council. Councilwoman Raven had been right—I’d been looking in the wrong places and hadn’t remembered the section on Necromancy in my Overview of the World of Witchery compendium.
I rooted through the box until I found the large, dark-blue volume. I took a seat on the floor and crossed my legs, pulling the heavy book onto my lap and turning to the table of contents. Ah-ah, there it was—Necromancy—pp. 1001-1499. I flipped to the chapter and began to read, skipping over the sections on history, important breakthroughs, and notable pioneers in the field and getting straight to the part about practical application for beginners. There wasn’t much there but I hoped it would be enough. I searched through the list of spells until I found one that seemed pretty simple and also that I already had all the ingredients to make, or at least most of them anyway. It called for a variety of spices, a can of kidney beans, three tablespoons of orange juice, and the hair of a naked mole-rat. The hair of the naked mole-rat was my only problem…I mean, where could a person even get one of those? I highly doubted even the magical products superstore in Seattle would carry it. Maybe somewhere like New York or Transylvania. Seeing as how the recipe only called for a single hair, I doubted leaving it out would make much difference.
Getting to my feet, I carried the book back upstairs with me and went into the kitchen. Edward was still there, his unblinking eyes gazing up at the ceiling.
“Don’t worry,” I told him, “I’m going to bring you back to life in a jiffy.”
I checked the book. “Or maybe 45 minutes to an hour, since that’s how long the potion needs to simmer.”
I propped the book on the stand where I put my cookbooks and went to the pantry to gather the dry goods and spices.
After putting a pot on the stove, I measured out the ingredients, added one and half quarts of water, and turned the burner on high. The recipe indicated that after bringing the mixture to a boil, to cover and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Easy-peasy.
